The Doctor takes Rose back to the 7th of November 1987, the day her
father Pete was killed in a hit-and-run accident. Rose intends to merely
comfort the dying man, but on the spur of the moment decides to save
Pete's life instead. Her well-intentioned interference in time summons
forth the Reapers, flying monsters who begin to consume the planet -- and
it also has a catastrophic effect on the TARDIS.

Production

During the wilderness years between 1989 and 2003 when Doctor Who
was no longer in regular production, Paul Cornell was at the crest of the
wave of fans who took control of the franchise. Cornell had been active in
fandom for some time, earning numerous credits in fanzines and Doctor
Who Magazine. But it was his debut novel, 1990's Timewyrm:
Revelation, which charted the revolutionary, boundary-shattering
course which would become the hallmark of the then-nascent Doctor Who:
The New Adventures range from Virgin Publishing.

Cornell's second novel, Love And War, introduced enduring companion
Benny Summerfield, who would eventually be spun off into her own series of
books and audio plays. He subsequently wrote No Future, the first
Doctor Who: The Missing Adventures novel Goth Opera, the
highly-acclaimed Human Nature, and the fiftieth New
Adventure, Happy Endings. Later, Cornell penned The Shadows
Of Avalon for BBC Books' series of Doctor Who novels as well as
two titles -- The Shadow Of The Scourge and Seasons Of Fear
(the latter with his wife, Caroline Symcox) -- for Big Finish Productions'
line of Doctor Who audio dramas.

Paul Cornell was the driving force behind the adventures
of a new Ninth Doctor intended for a series of webcasts

Meanwhile, Cornell established a writing career away from Doctor
Who as well. He published two novels -- Something More and
British Summertime -- and contributed scripts to a number of
television programmes, including Coronation Street, Casualty
and Children's Ward. And for a time it appeared that Cornell would
be the driving force behind the adventures of a Ninth Doctor played by
Richard E Grant: in 2003 he was asked to write The Scream Of The
Shalka, an animated BBC webcast originally intended to spearhead an
ongoing series. Further plans for this Doctor, however, were scuppered by
the announcement that Doctor Who would be returning to television
in 2005 under the aegis of executive producer Russell T Davies.

In his pitch document for the new series, developed in the fall of 2003,
Davies had indicated one story (denoted simply as “Rose's
father”) which would be predominantly a character piece, with
minimal effects work. His idea was that it would feature Rose repeatedly
observing her dad's death in 1987 while the Doctor, in 2005, hears the
chronicle of the man's life from Judy (as Rose's mother was called at this
point). Davies was very familiar with Cornell's work, and was well aware
that his Doctor Who novels -- particularly Human Nature --
were lauded for their grasp of the human element of the Doctor's
adventures. Davies therefore asked Cornell to develop his “Rose's
father” idea into a script.

Cornell made various changes to Davies' concept. In particular, he wanted
to incorporate a monster into the story. At the same time, Head of Drama
Jane Tranter was complaining to Davies that his season outline was lacking
in this very respect. Cornell therefore created the Reapers, moving the
adventure away from its effects-lite origins. Originally, Cornell
envisioned the Reapers as having the traditional cowl-and-scythe
appearance of the legendary Grim Reaper; subsequent drafts saw this
concept migrate more towards a bestial appearance. (Special effects
company The Mill largely hewed to this latter depiction, although they
made the Reapers' tails scythe-shaped in tribute to Cornell's original
idea.)

The Reapers were envisioned as having the traditional
cowl-and-scythe appearance of the legendary Grim Reaper

Cornell also drew on established Doctor Who mythology --
specifically, the Blinovitch Limitation Effect (first mentioned in 1972's
Day Of The Daleks), which foretold potential
disaster should an individual appear more than once in the same time and
place -- in making the Doctor and Rose a more proactive part of the story.
One scene excised from Cornell's script would have featured younger
versions of Jackie's Chinese neighbours, Bau and Ru, who had appeared in
Aliens Of London earlier in the
season. Although not mention onscreen, Cornell gave the driver of the
car which kills Pete the name Matt.

Given the title “Wounded Time”, Cornell's story formed part of
the third production block alongside Dalek, directed by Joe Ahearne. Most of the
filming took place in and around St Paul's Church in Grangetown, Cardiff,
which served as St Christopher's; this spanned November 11th to 18th,
2004. On November 19th, the boardroom of the HTV Wales building in
Culverhouse Cross was used for the registry office, while the set for the
Tylers' flat (now redressed for its 1987 appearance) was erected for
taping in the same facility's Studio 1. Taping on this set continued on
November 22nd, the same day that street scenes were filmed on Hoel Trelai
and Hoel Pennar in Ely.

TARDIS material was recorded at the usual Doctor Who studio space
of Unit Q2 in Newport on the 23rd. More street sequences were completed on
November 25th (at Loudoun Square in Butetown, Cardiff) and 26th (at
Llanmales Street, Grangetown). On the latter day, the playground scene was
also recorded at Grange Gardens in Grangetown. The story's final title of
Father's Day was not conceived by Davies until shortly before the
season began, in February 2005.